The British Charity Commission has "rejected an application for charitable status from an organisation that promotes an ancient mystical belief system called gnosticism."
The Commission stated that the applicant organization "did not promote a positive, beneficial, moral or ethical framework because it focused too narrowly on the spiritual welfare of individuals" and more importantly from this blogger's perspective, the "application would also have failed on public benefit grounds because it was not demonstrated that the benefit was to the public or a sufficient section of the public".
Now, imagine if the IRS used this latter standard -- demonstrating that the benefit was to the public or a sufficient section of the public -- to grant nonprofit status. Can all US nonprofits say they benefit the public or a sufficient section of the public? And, should they be able to demonstrate that they do? I think so.